A heartbroken American writer starts a story about an ice-cold sombrero that falls inexplicably from the sky and lands in the centre of a small Southwest town. Devastated by the departure of his gorgeous Japanese girlfriend, he cannot concentrate on his writing and in frustration he throws away his beginning. But as the man searches through his apartment for strands of his lost love's hair, the discarded story in the wastepaper basket - through some kind of elaborate origami - carries on without him. Arguments over the sombrero begin, one thing leads to another and before long all hell breaks loose in the normally sleep town. Brautigan's fertile imagination twists and pulls at the ensuing chaos to come up with a tender, moving, surreal and incredibly funny tale that is told by a writer at the very peak of his creative powers.
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Brautigan's comic touch is predictably unerring and the hilarious narrative development is studded with wry surreal gags - New Statesman
About the Author
Richard Brautigan was born in 1935 in Tacoma, Washington where he spent most of his childhood and teenage years. Sometime in the mid-Fifties Brautigan moved to San Francisco where he published his first volume of poetry. Soon after he wrote some of his most famous novels such as Trout Fishing in America, Sombrero Fallout, A Confederate General from Big Sur and In Watermelon Sugar. As well as five other novels and the collection of short fiction, Revenge of the Lawn, Brautigan was an accomplished poet who had nine volumes of poetry published as well as many other short experimental works. Brautigan's last novel, So the Wind Won't Blow Away was published in 1982. He was found dead in 1984, aged 49, beside a bottle of alcohol and a .44 calibre gun.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Sombrero Fallout is a truly origional book. The story starts with an author who is devastated at having just been dumped by his beautiful Japanese girlfriend. He tries to write a story about a Sombrero that falls out of the sky but he is too sad and begins crying and throws the crumpled piece of paper into his bin. However, the story about the sombrero decides to go on without him in his wastepaper basket while he pines away for his ex. As we read this book we are told by Brautigan not only about the author and his despair for his lost love, but about the story of the sombrero falling out of the sky and the havoc it brings. These two stories occur simultaneously in alternating chapters, which in pure Brautigan style, are only a few pages long each.
This book is funny (how often does a sombrero fall out of the sky and wreak havoc where you live?), sad, and at times disturbing. It is also very truthful. Anyone who has ever had their heart broken will relate to the author who becomes obsessed with his Japanese ex and desperately searches his house for a strand of her hair, that finding something left of her in his life becomes the most impoortant thing in the world to him.
This book is written in Brautigan's unique style. Short sentences, a sequence of words that roll of the tongue in the most beautiful way.
Anyone who has read Brautigan will love this book and anyone who hasn't, should.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By RachelWalker
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
Much as Jarvis Cocker probably does, (based on his introduction), I judge a bookshop on whether it stocks any Brautigan or not. If it doesn't, shame on them. If it does, I'll spend a little longer; after all, if they stock Brautigan, what else might they stock of an similar ilk that I don't know about...
Brautigan is the funniest, most irreverent , most eclectic writer I've ever come across. He writes free-wheeling joyful little stories with a bittersweet strain. They're mad, zany, fun. They strike off on tangents, make fun of a life, people, language. They breathe their philosophy (whatever that is) on every page.
Sombrero Fallout is particularly good (not quite my favourite, that's The Abortion). It tells the story of an American humourist writer with no sense of humour, his sleeping Japanese ex-girlfriend, and a story he begins but abandons and throws in the bin. This story, however, takes on a life of its own and creates itself from the wastepaper basket it finds itself in.
Beneath the wackiness, beneath the humour, beneath the stretched-credulity and deadpan humour, Brautigan's lessons are wise ones, and his strories are shot through with seams of sadness that are their only uniting theme. I would have loved to know this chap. I recommend everything he wrote.
Brautigan is the funniest, most irreverent , most eclectic writer I've ever come across. He writes free-wheeling joyful little stories with a bittersweet strain. They're mad, zany, fun. They strike off on tangents, make fun of a life, people, language. They breathe their philosophy (whatever that is) on every page.
Sombrero Fallout is particularly good (not quite my favourite, that's The Abortion). It tells the story of an American humourist writer with no sense of humour, his sleeping Japanese ex-girlfriend, and a story he begins but abandons and throws in the bin. This story, however, takes on a life of its own and creates itself from the wastepaper basket it finds itself in.
Beneath the wackiness, beneath the humour, beneath the stretched-credulity and deadpan humour, Brautigan's lessons are wise ones, and his strories are shot through with seams of sadness that are their only uniting theme. I would have loved to know this chap. I recommend everything he wrote.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
An American humorist who doesn't have a sense of humour, just heartache and lament for a lost love. A simple story about an unusual event - a unidentified fallen sombrero - that becomes unleashed into chaos. These two parallel stories hold you entranced from the first page (the only time they ever actually meet). His prose often runs like poetry. His characters are so endearing, in all their neurotic splendour, and I can't help but think that his hero has an autobiographical edge . I truly love this book and have done since I first read it ten years ago. I'm delighted it has been re-published - no more trawling through flea markets in a vain hope of chancing an old copy - and I highly recommend it to anyone with an appreciation of absurd with soul. This is one that you'll want to share with others ... and own forever.
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3.7 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Richard Brautigan
Sombrero Fallout is a pleasant and sad book. There seems to be a reason and a point behind it, and in any case it is thoroughly entertaining and funny in the sort of way where you... Read more
Published 9 days ago by Chris Cawthorne
5.0 out of 5 stars
Must Read
Brilliant.
Mad.
Funny.
Quick and Easy.
I highly recommend this to anyone who appreciates a bit of dry humour and short chapters
Mad.
Funny.
Quick and Easy.
I highly recommend this to anyone who appreciates a bit of dry humour and short chapters
Published 4 months ago by Anthony Ford
5.0 out of 5 stars
BLOody Great!
Super fantastical acrobatical masterpiece. Pantomimic ecto-plasm. Rely on breathing and stops, take a quick little look around and inhale every spec of dust that has drifted. Read more
Published 11 months ago by beddly
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best of Brautigan's books
I've read some other novels by Brautigan before, like Trout Fishing in America or Watermelon Sugar, and I have to say that in spite of the fact that I loved the style and the... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Mig
5.0 out of 5 stars
My favourite book of all time
I can't recommend this book more, it is fantantic, sureal, and just wonderful. As a massive reader (I'm 42 and have been reading 60-200 books per year of all genres except the... Read more
Published on 26 April 2011 by helen reader
5.0 out of 5 stars
a funny take on humanity
Sombrero Fallout is an excellent book detailing the chaos which in engulfs a small town-when the aforementioned sombrero falls- and the grows to a crisis or worldly proportions. Read more
Published on 17 Feb 2007 by andy r
5.0 out of 5 stars
A kaleidoscope of desperation
Richard Brautigan wrote beautiful books, of which this is one of the best; honest, real, tormented, fantastic, witty, visionary. Read more
Published on 29 Dec 2000 by David Sandilands
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read this book
You should read this book. Sombrero Fallout is a beautiful and unusual book. I cried and I laughed at parts of this book. Read more
Published on 8 Nov 2000
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